DELAND — Compete, compete, compete. That’s all Stetson baseball cares about.
Competition is the foundation of sports, but Hatters head coach Steve Trimper has made “the compete factor” an integral part of his coaching philosophy in his 10th season with the reins to the program.
Trimper describes the “compete factor” he’s trying to instill in his players as a trait of mental toughness. It’s supposed to be a place Stetson’s ballplayers can find within themselves whenever they face adversity on the diamond.
“I talk about it nonstop,” Trimper said “In fact, it probably consumes 95% of my coaching, the culture and the compete factor that I try to put these guys in every day.”
And Trimper’s efforts have been successful. Just ask any of the Hatters. Preferably outfielder Landon Russell, who referenced the word "compete" after almost every question in a postgame interview.
“Like I said earlier, it’s the compete factor,” Russell said after batting in three RBIs to help Stetson beat UCF 8-4 on March 24. “When we go out there and play with energy, compete like we can and play with one another … That’s all it is. No matter if it’s Arkansas, UCF, FGCU, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter the opponent. It matters that we go out there and we compete every inning throughout the night.”
Stetson’s mindset has worked at times this season.
The Hatters improved to 12-14 after beating the Knights on Tuesday evening for their fourth Quad 1 victory of the season. UCF, who trailed 8-0 at one point before a four-run eighth inning, was ranked 18th in the NCAA’s RPI prior to Stetson's victory.
Stetson split an away series with current No. 4 Arkansas 2-2 earlier this month, marking the first time the Razorbacks didn’t win a home nonconference series since 2014. The Hatters also beat No. 9 Virginia 6-5 on Feb. 21 in a one-off affair.
So Trimper’s squad has proved Stetson can compete with anybody in the country when it's at its best. It just has to do it more consistently, as losses to West Georgia (6-19) and St. John’s (9-14) are at the opposite end of the Hatters’ win-loss spectrum.
“We’ve been a little bit of a team that has kind of not been steady. It’s something we’re working on,” Trimper said. “We’ve played really good, and we’ve played really bad … You play clean, you win. There’s so much parity at this level, and the team that gives it away usually ends up on the wrong side.”
Stetson isn’t a stranger to clean baseball. The Hatters have been able to win back-to-back Atlantic Sun Conference titles, both of which were accompanied with 40-win seasons and appearances in NCAA Regionals.
But Stetson doesn’t want to end the NCAA Tournament or conference winning streak at two seasons. According to Trimper, “one of the standards” the Hatters hope to accomplish is win the ASUN regular-season title and conference tournament and move on farther than they did a season ago.
"If we can go three in a row, that's amazing," Trimper said. "There's not many teams that can do that, and we have good enough talent to do it. We just got to play consistent."
Whether Stetson reaches its standard will be revealed as the season rolls on, but the “compete factor” will always be something the Hatters can lean on in the important games.
“In times of adversity, are you going to crumble, or are you going to just dig down deep? And that’s not an easy trait,” Trimper said. “It’s easy to pass the buck or give up. You know, we’ve just taken some of our failures and have made sure that everybody understands it’s not final, it’s not fatal, but this program has standards.
“And the standard is to compete, and if you can’t compete, you’re gonna get passed up.”
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NCAA baseball: Stetson earns 4th Quad 1 win thanks to 'compete factor'